A Fun Day with a Friend

Wow!  No blog posts from me lately, it seems.  I have been too busy with Aunt care and patient care.  But life has gone on, mostly pleasantly, despite my incommunicado status.  Just a little catching up seems in order. 

Ana often comes to visit in order to block her sweaters on my wooly board, and I welcome these visits.  Blocking sweaters is fun, and even more fun when two people are doing it.  I have a sweater of my own waiting for later in the day.  Ana frequently considers getting her own wooly board, but I discourage this thought because that would eliminate an excuse for a visit and a peek at her most recent creations.  This sweater, Meg Swanson’s Phoenix is pretty amazing, don’t you think?

On a recent visit, Ana wanted to make Julia Child’s pumpkin soup, but I was less enthusiastic, because I am banting, and the pound or two of butter in that particular soup recipe makes me queasy for days afterward.  Also, I seem to recall that making that soup was an all day event! So Ana came up with a slimmed down version, and it was super, super delicious.  And waaaaaaay more healthy.  And pretty quick to make.  We had a day of blocking, knitting, and movie watching planned, and the soup making portion of the day went by in a flash.  But once again, maybe that was there were two of us doing it.

Here is Ana’s recipe:

600 g peeled seeded pumpkin, cut in to roughly 3/4" peices

1 onion, chopped

6 cloves garlic, chopped

Handful fresh sage, chopped

1 loaf bread, cut in to bite-size croutons, and toasted in the oven (I toasted at 350 for 20 minutes, stirring at 10 and 15 minutes)

1 quart "chicken" stock

2 tablespoons olive oil

Grated swiss cheese, to garnish

Heavy cream, to garnish

In a pressure cooker over medium high heat, sauté the onion and garlic until translucent.  Add chopped sage, and sauté until lightly browned.  If desired, reserve some sage for garnish at the table.

Add the pumpkin to the pressure cooker, and stir to combine the ingredients.  Pour in the "chicken" stock.  Cook at high pressure for 5 minutes.

Take approximately 3/4 of the croutons, and place in a blender or food processor.  Pulse until you have bread crumbs.  Reserve remaining croutons to garnish at the table.

Release pressure using quick release method.  Stir soup.  Stir in the bread crumbs you created above.  If desired, you may puree the soup using an immersion blender at this point.  You may also add additional "chicken" stock if the soup is thicker than you would prefer.

Serve the soup, garnishing with drizzled cream, the grated Swiss cheese, croutons, and sage pieces as desired.